


the nights you feel outnumbered

by ZahlzStar



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - No Creatures of Grimm (RWBY), F/F, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 06:30:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20092813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZahlzStar/pseuds/ZahlzStar
Summary: Ruby Rose needs about a lifetime worth of sleep, but maybe some new friends will do instead.Weiss Schnee needs about a week off work, but maybe a bothersome girl that makes her heart beat faster will suffice.Blake Belladonna needs to let the warmth in again, and a girl with fire in her eyes might just be the missing piece.Yang Xiao Long is all fire and fists, but a girl in a bakery might just be something worth burning for.





	the nights you feel outnumbered

**Author's Note:**

> The first part of the shenanigans I've been holding onto for a while. Title for the fic is from Outnumbered by Dermot Kennedy, and the title for the chapter is Incredible by James TW. The songs that are featured are: Nothing Holdin' Me Back by Shawn Mendes, Dress by Taylor Swift, Small Doses by Bebe Rexha, Handclap by Fitz and the Tantrums, and I Like the Way You Move by The Bodyrockers.

_ I just wanted a simple walk. Why can’t I have nice things? _

“Zwei, where are you going?!” 

Yang throws her hands to the side in exasperation as she watches her dog disappear around the street corner. The dog park is most definitely the opposite direction, so she’s at a loss as to where he thinks he’s going. Lord only knows what goes through that dog’s head at any point in time. 

It’s late afternoon and the traffic has quieted down for the moment, so while she’s not too worried about Zwei being out of sight, Yang picks up the speed to get around the corner. As she does, she sees a familiar Corgi butt park itself down next to the Schnee ice cream place, right in front of a store that she was certain had to be new.

As Yang approaches curiously she takes in the appearance of the store, noticing that there are a few small tables set up for outdoor dining. They seem to be halfway through the process of packing them away, white metal chairs stacked in sets of four. It leads Yang to believe that she must have arrived in the tail end of the store’s opening hours, and she hopes that she’s not stumbling in after closing time like an asshole. That of course, would be an impossible concept to explain to the dog with a bigger appetite than hers. 

_ Belladonna’s Baked Goods, seems pretty straight forward. _The building looks a little on the old side, but the decal is all still in working order and does an adequate job of representing some of the products that the store offers. She can picture her sister asking something along the lines of ‘do you think those are to scale?’

“You looking to score?” Yang scoffs as she steps up over the gutter and kneels down next to Zwei, reaching her hand out to scratch lightly between his ears. 

“Are you always this forward with strangers, or am I just special?” 

Yang’s eyes widen and she shoots up to stand when she realises that someone had appeared in the doorway in front of her. She’s pretty sure that her facial expressions give her away when she openly gawks at what is quite possibly the most utterly appealing individual she’d ever seen. 

“I...don’t know which direction to take this sentence,” Yang admits as she tries to regain a semblance of calm in the wake of surprise and minor embarrassment, glancing behind her to make sure she isn’t going to bump into anything. “I’m Yang,” 

The girl’s cat ears flick in curiosity, and she tilts her head slightly before responding, “Blake.” 

A sudden grumble from their feet draws Yang’s attention from Blake and back down to her temporarily forgotten dog. He stares up to her with a look of expectancy in his eyes far too human than should really be presented by an animal.

“This is Zwei,” Yang gestures and Blake kneels down to look at the creature cautiously.

“You know, I’ve never been a big fan of dogs. My parents are really pushing to be more inclusive of pet owners though, so it’s something I’m working through. Slowly, very slowly,”

It isn’t until this point that Yang notices Blake has a bone-shaped cookie in her hand. She also notices that Blake has very nice hands, but that’s hardly the pressing matter.

“Do you mind?” Blake asks holding the biscuit up for approval, “it’s a dog treat, so it’s perfectly safe,” 

“Of yeah, of course. Iron Gut over here will eat anything,” Yang waves her hand in way of consent, gathering some level of calm in the presence of a goddess. 

“Does he take after his owner?” Blake asks and Yang grins slightly as she watches the girl’s eyes rake slowly over her, certainly not for the first time. 

“She can certainly be enticed,” Yang responds and the unspoken offer hangs in the air between the two of them. Yang takes a moment to acknowledge that Blake somehow manages to make the black apron and stock standard white polo shirt seem flattering. Yang also chooses that moment to file away the notion that she may have just developed a thing for uniforms, made somewhat more mortifying given the nature of Ruby’s occupation. 

“Blake! The proofer is leaking again,” 

Yang’s gaze shoots up to where a rather short girl pokes her head over the top of the counter with an impatient scowl. “Hey, aren’t you The Ice Queen?” 

“I agree to one commercial and this is the nonsense I have to put up with?” The girl huffs and disappears out of sight again, white ponytail flicking behind her. 

“Well, she seems fun,” Yang comments and Blake chuckles before climbing back to her feet, brushing her hands on her apron, now free of the treat that Zwei had apparently devoured while they were distracted.

“Sorry about that, Weiss gets touchy whenever the ice cream ad gets brought up,” 

“I should go help her with the proofer, my dad probably forgot to switch it off when he left this morning,” Blake continues, pointing behind her and Yang shifts on her feet.

“No, yeah. Of course, I’m sure you’ve got a bunch of proofy stuff to do, I should be getting back anyway.”

“It was nice meeting you, Yang,” Blake smiles as she steps back into the store and Yang is left with a dopey smile on her face as she waves awkwardly.

A yap from Zwei has Yang shaking herself out of her stupor and she focuses her attention on walking back towards the house. She notices Zwei eyeing her, and she nudges him with her foot as she goes, “don’t even start.”

Blake can’t help the smile on her face at the prospect of the extremely attractive dog owner that had wandered her way, temporarily forgetting about the mountain of tasks she still needed to finish.

“A little help, please?” Weiss asks in her usual tone of annoyance. To be fair, she'd been here since 5am that morning and was probably just as ready to be home as Blake was. 

“Right, sorry,” Blake replies as her eyes are still on the blonde that was walking away from the store, quite clearly having a conversation with her dog. 

Blake grabs the mop and begins to clean the excess water on the floor as Weiss grumbles about something, placing some croissants on the baking tray for tomorrow. 

“She seems nice, right?” Blake asks, wringing the mop out into the bucket and going over the floor a few more times until she’s satisfied that it won’t be a tripping hazard, only to double back once more to make sure it was up to Weiss’ standards as well. 

“Nice to look at maybe, but surely insufferable to spend time with,” Weiss retorts as she slides the tray into an empty rack of the pastry trolley. 

_ Pot calling the kettle black. _

“You’re just mad she called you Ice Queen,” Blake scoffs and ducks out of the way as Weiss begins to wrap the trolley in plastic wrap, holding it at her head height rather than asking her to move.

“It was one ad,” Weiss grumbles, pulling the large trolley behind her into the cramped coldroom and sliding the door shut after squeezing back out, no doubt making a mental note to rearrange it at a later date.

* * *

“_Yang, _where are you going?” Ruby asks from the couch as Yang hurriedly searches for Zwei's leash, glancing at her scroll to keep an eye on the time. 

“Taking Zwei out for a walk,” Yang answers, still scanning the room intently. She tries to keep her body language aloof, but Ruby’s gaze is locked on her curiously, no doubt picking up on the nervous energy. 

“But I already took him for a walk today,” Ruby responds with a puzzled tone and Yang pauses for a moment, weighing her own response and its plausibility. 

“What's the harm in another one? Can't you see how excited he is?”

They both glance over at where Zwei is currently sprawled out on his back, snoring softly. 

“See, he's practically dragging me out the door,” Yang points with both arms, feeling her cover story crumbling steadily in front of her, as Zwei’s leg twitches slightly. The furry little traitor.

Ruby looks from Zwei, to Yang, but looks thoroughly unconvinced. “_Yang,_”

“Okay, fine. I'm going to the bakery,” Yang huffs and looks away, suddenly finding it very difficult to make eye contact with her sister, her usual bravado as none existent as her father’s fashion sense. 

“Yang, you've been there like everyday this week, and most of the last. The fridge is full of pastries you haven't eaten,” Ruby protests and Yang, much like their fridge, has no room to argue. “You bought an entire cake home yesterday, and you don't even like Black Forest,”

Yang rolls her eyes, “they were gonna throw it out, I was giving it a good home. How do you think we got Zwei?” 

“What's going on, Yang?” Ruby crosses her arms defiantly, Zwei's leash hanging from one hand.

“You’re really not gonna let this go, huh?” Yang asks but she can recognise the determined look in her sister’s eyes, already accepting that she’s not going to budge on this one. 

“Fine, but it’s easier if I just show you,” Yang sighs and Ruby eyes her with suspicion for a moment before nodding in acceptance and tossing her Zwei’s leash.

“Let me grab my scroll,” 

Five minutes, and a decent amount of trepidation on Yang’s part later, the two arrive outside the bakery and Ruby’s eyes are wide with excitement to finally see what the fuss is all about. Probably partly due to the anticipation of sugar as well, but who knows? 

“Oh my God, are those to scale?” Ruby makes her way inside in record speed and is already staring at the display cabinets full of pastries and sweets when a voice startles her. 

“Yang, you’re back. I was beginning to think Sun and Ilia scared you away,” 

“In their dreams, those croissants just keep calling me back, you know?” Yang rubs the back of her head sheepishly and Ruby very quickly puts the pieces together about Yang’s odd behaviour over the last week, not wasting a second to give her hell.

“You sure like that Black Forest too, huh?” 

Ruby has to work to avoid the elbow that is now aimed at her side and she steps out of the way. The girl behind the counter flicks her eyes towards Ruby as she’s in the process of reading her name tag and she squeaks at the sudden attention before realising that the gaze was directed behind her. She remembers with a start the handwritten sign asking customers to close the door behind them. 

“Oh shoot, I left the door open didn’t I? I’m so sorry,” 

Ruby spins on her heel in order to close the sliding door properly and runs straight into the person making their way inside. Before Ruby can react, there are frozen croissants falling to the floor and the very angry girl holding the now empty tray glares at her. 

“What are you doing? Has no one ever told you to watch where you’re going?” 

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to. I was just trying to close the door because I thought I forgot, but then you were already coming in, and I’m sorry,” Ruby begins, already crouching down to retrieve the frozen chunks of pastry that had been lost in the scuffle. 

“You already said that,” the girl huffs, dropping the tray down and doing the same. 

“So, that must be Ruby,” Blake guesses, and Yang nods her head with a look of amusement at the scene unfolding in front of them.

“Yup,” 

Ruby can barely hear Yang through the rush of blood in her ears, a combination of embarrassment and nervousness because despite how angry she is, the girl that Ruby ran into is also super pretty. Still _ super _angry though. 

A moment later, the croissants have been gathered and the girl continues past her with the tray, rounding the far corner of the counter and stopping with a huff again. 

“Blake, how many times do I need to ask you to stop moving the trash can? We already have one on this side of the room,” 

“Sorry, Weiss,” Blake apologises, but the tone in her voice suggests she's going to do the exact same thing tomorrow. 

Ruby glances at Yang with a flimsy smile that her sister grins at in response, “Nice one, Sis,” 

“Shut it, it was an accident,” Ruby walks back towards the counter to shove Yang. 

“You certainly know how to leave an impression, I’m Blake by the way,” 

Ruby turns her attention back to Blake as Weiss stomps past and dumps the contents of the tray in her hands into the trash. Ruby puts a hand up to apologise to the girl again but lowers it with a sigh when the girl in question brushes past her and disappears back down the stairs outside. 

“Don’t mind Weiss, she gets grumpy around the end of her shift,” Blake comments but pauses for a moment, “well, actually, she’s kind of always like that.” 

“Yeah, someone really needs to remove whatever it is that’s stuck up her butt,” Yang pipes in and Blake rolls her eyes.

“She’s really quite sweet once you get to know her, you just need to get past a _ lot _ of layers first,” 

“I feel really bad, I didn’t mean to make more work for her,” Ruby kicks her boot at the ground lightly. 

“She’ll be fine, really,” Blake insists as she grabs a broom and begins to sweep up the leftover flour that the spill had caused.

A few minutes later, Ruby watches Weiss emerge from the staircase and steps up to slide the door open for her. Weiss is still scowling, but she adjusts her hold on the tray and continues through the door. “Thank you,” 

“It’s nothing really, I was just standing here,” Ruby starts but Weiss has already walked past and disappeared around the counter and out of sight. 

“So, can I get you guys anything?” Blake asks, reaching for some gloves. 

“How about your number?” Yang responds with a wink and Blake rolls her eyes, placing a croissant on a plate and sliding it onto the counter. 

“I gave you that yesterday,” 

“What about you, Ruby?” The cat faunus holds a black ceramic plate and gestures grandly towards the sweets lining the glass cabinets. 

“A bucket of sand, so I can bury my shame?” Ruby answers, flopping down into a chair with a defeated look. 

“She’ll have a cookie and a hot chocolate,” Yang amends and Blake nods. She turns towards the coffee machine, but before she can move, Weiss glides past.

“I’ve got it, I’m in dire need of a pick me up anyway,” 

To Ruby’s delight, Weiss places a mug of hot chocolate and a cookie on the table in front of her a few minutes later. “By no means does this make us friends,” 

“You came back,” Ruby puts her hands up in delight, almost knocking her drink over in the process. Weiss rolls her eyes and returns to the back of the store, her own coffee in hand. 

“That could have gone worse,” Yang comments and Blake glances towards the baker currently busying herself out the back.

“I’ll say, Weiss doesn’t like making drinks for anyone,” 

“It was a one-time thing,” Weiss yells without looking up. 

“We’ll see about that, Ice Queen,” Yang laughs, leaning over the counter to look at her and Weiss glares.

“I told you to stop calling me that,” 

“You know, if you want her to come out with us this weekend, you’re going the wrong way about it,” Blake states as she begins to clean the coffee machine down, and Yang scoffs.

“Like we’re actually gonna get her out of her pastry dungeon,” 

“You’d be surprised,” Blake hums and looks over at Ruby again, an idea sparking in her mind. 

“What about you, Ruby? Would you like to go out with us on Sunday night?” 

Ruby almost chokes on her hot chocolate, and Blake’s ears flick as there’s a loud clattering of something in the back. “I mean, if you want me there,” Ruby replies, recovering quickly and shoving the entirety of her cookie into her mouth. 

“A night out with my baby sister? Sounds like a plan,” Yang grins and fluffs up Ruby’s hair with her hand. Ruby swats at Yang to no avail and Blake can’t help but chuckle at the two. She can see out of the corner of her eye that Weiss seems to be contemplating something, though she can’t tell from the distance if it’s her life, or how long until the croissants need to be put in the coldroom. She confirms it to be the former of those two options when Yang proclaims, “hey, I found a rogue croissant. Do you think Weiss will lock us in the freezer if we give it back to her?” 

* * *

“Zwei, I love you with everything in me, but I swear you’re going to a new home if you don’t let me sleep,” Ruby hadn’t even bothered to change out of her uniform, far too exhausted from the long shift to worry about such time-consuming things. 

She and Penny hadn’t had any calls that required her to get her hands too dirty, and had spent most of the 14 hours taking turns telling dispatch silly thoughts that had popped into their heads. Ruby loved working as an EMT, but by god the shifts were exhausting. There were only so many ways to pass the time, and the quieter the shift, the longer it felt. All she really wanted to do after this particular shift was sleep for at least 8 hours, but it seemed her four-legged friend had other ideas.

“Yannnggg, are you home?!” Ruby lifted her head from her pillow only far enough as to not be muffled, but after a moment of silence, she concludes that Yang has probably already left to help their father out at the gym. Since beginning the renovations, Tai had practically been living there. Ruby helped out as well when she could, but her father seemed to be happy to keep busy. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, it meant that there was an option of space when necessary and time spent when desired. It wasn’t the most common thing to have adult children still living with their father after all, but the dynamic had always seemed to work out for them, especially on the days her uncle would visit.

A few more yips from Zwei is enough to make Ruby groan and roll out of bed, “fine, fine. I’ll take you for a walk. She briefly ponders if she could walk Zwei all the way to the shelter without him catching on. She quickly dismisses that idea when she realises that her father would kill her if she did.

The corgi wags his tail in response, blissfully unaware of her train of thought, and his leash resting in his mouth in anticipation. Ruby grabs it from him and attaches it to his collar, nudging him with her boot to encourage him to head out the door. It takes no time at all before he’s pulling her towards the bakery, a hit with most of the family it was beginning to seem. As Ruby ties the leash off on the nearby pole, she notices that Blake doesn’t seem to be working today. She takes a second to look through the plastic screen that served as the outer wall just in case Blake was holed up somewhere cleaning. 

She slides open the door and is greeted by a blonde-haired boy. He places both hands to rest on top of the counter as he sees her, and Ruby spots a long monkey tail sliding a cabinet door closed. “I recognise that little guy, you’re not Ruby by any chance are you?”

“That’s me,” Ruby replies, curious as to just how much the workers here knew of Yang and herself. Then again, with the size of her sister’s mouth, it was no doubt quite a bit.

“I’m Sun, it’s nice to meet you,” the boy introduces himself at the same time her eyes catch his name tag. 

“Did you just say ‘Ruby’?” Ruby hears a voice from the back and instantly flinches as Weiss comes into view. The icy glare meets hers but softens in surprise as she gives her a once over. It’s at that point that Ruby remembers she’s still in uniform rather than her usual hoodie, from the pressed long sleeve shirt to the name badge reading _Rose._

“I didn’t know you worked in Emergency Services,” Weiss comments with a brow raised and Ruby tugs at her slightly disheveled appearance.

“You didn’t ask,” 

Weiss tilts her head and makes a face in agreement before flicking her gaze to where Sun is watching the interaction, “I can get this one.” 

“Sure thing, I’ve got a dishwasher in need of a good scrub anyway,” Sun bounds off to the back and Weiss puts a hand on her hip, looking at Ruby once more. 

“You know, if you’d mentioned it earlier I could have been giving you a discount, or more of one anyway,” 

“Oh, right. I guess I never really worry too much about it, I’m almost never in uniform unless I’m on shift,” Ruby shrugs, her hands behind her back as she rocks on her feet. 

“I suppose you’d like your usual?” Weiss asks, already making her way towards the coffee machine. 

“I’d like a coffee actually, if that’s alright. I just finished a 14 hour shift, but Zwei was going crazy being inside all day, so here I am,” 

“Oh, how do you take it then?” If Ruby didn’t know any better, she’d say Weiss’ tone softened. 

“Mocha please, cream and five sugars,” Ruby mumbles and watches as Weiss wrinkles her nose in disapproval but continues making the drink, sliding it over to her a minute later. 

Ruby pulls her wallet from her pocket but Weiss waves a hand, “it’s on me,” and Ruby smiles slightly in thanks before returning it. 

“Anyway, I should probably let you get back to what you were doing, and I should get to bed. This will be enough to keep me standing, but I feel like I could sleep into next week,” Ruby takes a sip from her cup and finds it’s not as bad as she expected.

“That’d be a shame, you’re supposed to be going out with us on Sunday night,” Weiss comments and Ruby has to work to keep the liquid in her mouth.

“So you are coming out? Hitting the town and all that?” 

“Something like that,” Weiss hums and finishes cleaning the coffee station as Ruby scoops her scroll and keys from the table she’d sat them on. 

“Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you around then,” Ruby starts as she waves, awkwardly heading for the door. 

“Goodbye, Ruby,”

Weiss shakes her head as Ruby disappears from sight, only to come running back down the walkway. 

“Bye, Sun, it was nice meeting you,” Ruby shouts and the boy in question pokes his head back around and waves.

“Okay, I’m actually leaving this time, so bye again,” Ruby sheepishly closes the door again and seems to leave for good this time, vanishing with a surprising amount of speed for such a small girl. Weiss chides herself for that thought though, feeling somewhat like the pot calling the kettle black. As much as she’d hate to admit it, she was fairly certain that the other girl was taller than she was, be it only by a small amount. 

“She’s cute,” Sun comments, perched on the open door of the dishwasher, scrubbing brush in hand. 

“You think everyone’s cute,” Weiss mutters, trying her best to avoid the topic of the girl that had been causing her quite a few minor inconveniences as of late. 

“She’s for sure into you,” Sun continues unfazed, jumping to his feet and grabbing the hose to spray the inside of the dishwasher. He hums along softly to the radio as he goes, seemingly one of the only people besides herself to actually enjoy cleaning the giant machine. 

“Don’t be absurd,” Weiss retorts, her cheeks flaring at the possibility. Before Sun can say anything else, Weiss scurries away into the coldroom, leaning against the door and huffing as the heat in her cheeks refuses to leave. 

* * *

“Honestly, it baffles me how much filth gathers in this place,” Weiss huffs, slightly out of breath as she continues to scrub the bottom of the last pot. This one was unfortunately too large to fit into the sink properly, which amplified the difficulty of the task. 

“It baffles me that you continue to do that every week, it’s just going to get dirty again. Like literally as soon as Mom and Dad get in tomorrow, it’s a losing battle,” Blake responds from her perch on the back bench. She’d already eaten lunch but she still had quite a bit of time left in her break, so she was currently watching Weiss curse quietly with each new patch of soot that appeared on her skin. 

“Just because everyone else around here has the same disaffected attitude towards cleaning doesn’t mean _ I _ have to,” Weiss replies, her attention still on the task at hand, this time spraying the pot down with the hose. Blake tilts her head in curiosity as she watches Ilia creep past in the direction of the croissant trolley, her finger to her lips comically as a request for discretion.

“Hey, what time do the croissants need to go in today?” Blake asks over the sound of the spray, as Ilia slides the coldroom door open and begins to pull the trolley quietly. 

“Not for a while yet, Ilia keeps trying to put them in early. I don’t know how many times I need to tell her,” Weiss responds, her back still turned and seemingly oblivious to the situation at hand. 

“Riiight, there’s just no stopping her, huh?” Blake grins and shakes her head as Ilia shoots her a thumbs up and hurries back out to the front. 

“Between her and Sun, I’m amazed I can get anything done in this place,” Weiss grumbles and when Sun looks up in surprise from where he’s restocking the sweets, Blake simply makes a face and shakes her head to let him know not to worry about it. 

“Are you excited for tonight?” Blake asks, partly in way of changing the subject, and partly because she herself was quite nervous for the evening ahead. 

“I suppose,” Weiss answers, seeming to busy herself now with wiping her arms free of the black markings coating them.

“You suppose? Gee, Weiss, you wanna try a little enthusiasm? It’s been ages since we’ve had a chance to go out together,”

“Oh please, like you’d be any different if Yang wasn’t going to be there,” Weiss retorts and Blake lets her mind wander to the blonde for a moment. 

“Can you really blame me?” 

“Nope,” Ilia calls from the front and Blake chuckles as Weiss scrunches her nose up.

“Yes, well. Yang isn’t exactly my type,” 

“Oh, I’m well aware of your type. It starts with Ruby and ends with Rose,” Blake teases and Weiss flushes red. 

“I’ll say, Weiss has a soft spot for Ruby a mile long,” The fact that Sun seems to have heard this part of the conversation and decides to chip in as well is enough for Weiss.

“Don’t you all have jobs to do?!”

Ilia and Sun both laugh but continue on with the tasks they were doing, and Weiss smacks her hands down on the bench next to Blake in defeat, trying her best to reduce the flush that had overflowed in her cheeks and worked its way down to her neck. “Alright, fine. Yes, I’m excited. It will be nice to get out for the evening,” 

“I thought so,” Blake leans back on her arms, quite pleased with herself, “If anything, you should be glad Yang’s not here, she would have already made a joke about you liking it dirty,” 

Weiss scowls at this, and Blake takes the opportunity to wipe away the black smudge on Weiss’ cheek with her thumb. “I’ll start counting my blessings now, shall I?” 

“She’s pretty great you know, if you can get past the ego,” Blake offers and Weiss perks an eyebrow.

“You really do like her, don’t you?” 

“She’s _different_. She’s funny, charming, _ painfully _attractive. She makes me feel lighter when she’s around, like I don’t have a care in the world. I haven’t felt this way in a long time, even before Adam,” Blake speaks honestly and she watches as Weiss’ gaze softens. “Have you heard anything about him?” 

“No, Dad’s still got his contacts around the place but Adam hasn’t surfaced. At least not close enough to us to be a concern,” Blake breathes, her mind flashing back to the chaos of that final night with Adam. The sirens, the blood, the feeling of her father’s arms wrapped around her when it was all over. Each day made it easier to fight the urge to watch over her shoulder, the longer the silence the better she felt that she was truly free of Adam’s influence. 

Adam and the White Fang had torn her life apart just as they had Menagerie, but she was in a better place now. She felt safe, at least as safe as she could feel. Especially given that Yang had offered to take her to the gym and give her a few lessons when she’d learnt that Yang was a fight instructor. “I think maybe he’s finally letting me go,” 

“I’m glad to hear that. What you went through with him was a mess. If you feel this strongly about Yang, then I’m happy for you, Blake. I really am,” Weiss replies earnestly and Blake smiles slightly.

“You’re still going to bicker with her like there’s no tomorrow, aren’t you?” 

“Of course I am, Yang wouldn’t know what to do with herself if I didn’t,” Weiss cracks a smile and Blake glances up at the clock, seeing that she does in fact need to get back to work. 

“You know, Weiss, if you want any tips for wooing Ruby tonight, Ilia and I would be happy to help you out,” Sun offers as he wanders towards the back, Ilia in sight over his shoulder as well.

“Oh please, like I’m going to take relationship advice from you two. Especially if the failed courting of Blake is any indicator,” Weiss scowls and the pair recoil in mock injury. 

“Weiss!” Blake reprimands but there’s distinct laughter in her voice as Weiss rolls her eyes.

“Oh sure, everyone else gets to make the jokes,” 

“Sheesh, you get drunk and cry when a girl straddles you _ once _ and you never hear the end of it,” Ilia shakes her head and Sun nods in agreement.

“Right? All _ I _did was dislocate a shoulder by trying to be romantic and climb up to her window,” 

“Exactly, it’s all perfectly reasonable. It’s not like we had a gay meltdown upon meeting a celebrity athlete,” Ilia continues, waving a finger in the air as she recalls the memory. 

“Or got drunk and spent an hour hitting on a fashion designer and her girlfriend without realising they were together,” Sun hums with a hand clutching his chin, as if in deep contemplation. 

Blake has the decency to keep her laughter quiet, but Weiss has murder in her eyes as she flicks her gaze between Sun and Ilia before throwing her hands in the air and barely restraining the urge to stomp her foot. “I give up, this place is a fucking nightmare,” 

* * *

Ruby takes one last look in the mirror, running her hands through her hair and tugging on her red button-up. She wasn’t nervous exactly, excited wasn’t really the word either. _Terrified,_ that was the one she was after. 

It’d been quite some time since she’d gone out, partly due to her work schedule, and partly because it just wasn’t something she did particularly often. 

The fact that Weiss was going to be there was an entirely different realm of worry, but she pushed past that. It wasn’t like Weiss had expressed any particular interest, not like Yang and Blake, those two had hit it off immediately. While that was surprising, the pair seemed to be enjoying themselves so far, and really, what was the harm? 

Speaking of Yang, she was probably three seconds away from dragging her out the door. Her sister had practically been vibrating with excitement all day, and if Ruby was being honest, she wouldn’t put it past her to grab her by the scruff and head out, clothed or not. Shaking that thought out of her head, Ruby grabs her scroll and keys, glancing down at her boots to make sure they’re properly fastened. Satisfied with her appearance for the moment, Ruby sighs and heads for the stairs. 

Yang unsurprisingly was dressed to the nines in about half the time, and half the worry that Ruby had gone through. There was still an air of anxiousness but it was easily calmed by Yang’s overall confidence. 

“You ready to go, Sis?” Yang asks, spying Ruby at the top of the stairs, “I’ll carry you out there myself and you know I will.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go,” Ruby grumbles, clomping her way down the stairs, already questioning if this was such a good idea. 

Ten minutes on Bumblebee later, Ruby is fairly well convinced on her earlier pondering. If she had any sense left in her, Ruby would be mocking Yang for the almost comical dropping of her jaw as she sees Blake in a black dress that flatters her so well she’d say Blake invented the concept.

As it stood, Ruby was currently trying to keep her own jaw in place, having been utterly taken aback by Weiss out of uniform. The girl is wearing a short white dress that hugs her hips, further accentuated by the heels that dare she say it, put her ahead of Ruby in height. Her hair is loose from the ponytail she usually wore and cascades around her form in a way that has Ruby itching to run her hands through it. The only thing that keeps Ruby grounded in that moment is the all too familiar look of displeasure presented on Weiss’ face, albeit lessened slightly when she catches sight of the new arrivals.

Weiss taps Blake lightly to direct her attention towards them and Blake’s ear flick over in their direction, her face visibly lighting up. “You made it,” Blake exclaims, drink already in her hand as she pulls Ruby into a hug first, and then afterwards, hugging Yang close to her as well. Ruby tries not to think too hard about it as she sees Yang whisper something to Blake that makes her ears flick in surprise. _Nope, I don’t wanna know._

“Ew, they’re courting already,” 

To Ruby’s credit, she manages not to yelp as Weiss suddenly appears beside her, leaning close enough for her voice to be heard over the music. 

“Yeah, I don’t think it takes much with those two,” Ruby replies, settling herself to be in Weiss’ proximity. 

“Would you like something to drink?” Weiss asks, and Ruby glances down to see that Weiss’ hands are empty. “Blake has already started, but I prefer to wait until company has arrived before I begin,” 

“Oh, yeah. Sorry to keep you waiting so long, a drink would be great,” Ruby messes with her hands, glancing up at Weiss and seeing that the scowl is only minor. 

“It’s quite alright, Blake took plenty of time as well, so you were hardly the only inconvenience,” 

Ruby’s face falls slightly at the implication that she’d been an inconvenience, and Weiss’ face softens. “I’m sorry, that was rude. I didn’t mean it like that. Come on, let’s go grab something,”

Ruby smiles again and gestures for Weiss to lead them towards the bar. Weiss nods and turns on her heel. Against Ruby’s better judgment, she glances down towards Weiss’ butt and has to stifle the groan of appreciation of just how nice it looks, coupled with the fact that looking was definitely all she’d be able to do. It takes a few minutes of wading through people, but eventually they make their way up to the bar.

“Do you have a preference?” Weiss asks and Ruby can hear a voice at the back of her mind that sounds suspiciously like her sister saying, _ women. _ She promptly ignores that and shrugs slightly.

“I’m one of those terrible people that like drinking Vodka and Redbull, but I don’t think I really need that extra excitement tonight, so whatever you’d suggest really,” 

“I see, well perhaps I can find something else you’ll like the taste of,” Weiss responds, turning her attention to the bartender and ordering two cocktails as Ruby tries her best not to malfunction at the thought of what that sentence could imply. 

By the time Weiss hands her a peculiar orange drink with swirls of red, Ruby is happy to gulp it down, requiring something to ease her dry mouth. She’s pleasantly surprised by the taste of orange, raspberry, and something else a little more tangy. “This is really good,” 

“It’s something I stumbled upon a while ago; orange, raspberry, and grenadine. Two types of alcohol without the horrid taste,” Weiss hums and takes a sip of her drink, eyes glancing around to scan the crowd around them before settling back on Ruby. 

“So, tell me about yourself,” Weiss starts and Ruby giggles. 

“You know, you make that sound more like a demand than a question,”

“I can go talk to someone else, you know,” Weiss huffs in an exaggerated manner and starts to turn away but Ruby laughs some more and shoots her hand out to catch Weiss. “Wait, no. I’m sorry, don’t leave,” 

Her hand catches Weiss by the elbow but the momentum as she moves carries it down until she’s holding the other girl’s hand. Ruby stares wide-eyed at the joining of their hands and panics, fully prepared to pull her hand away but Weiss tightens her grip. With her other hand, Weiss tips her drink back, draining the contents and placing it back on the bar. 

“Alright then, Miss Rose. If you don’t want to talk to me, perhaps you’d like to dance?” Weiss cocks an eyebrow and begins tugging Ruby towards the dancefloor. Ruby manages to gather herself enough to gulp down the remainder of her drink and return it to the bar top. She tightens the grip on Weiss’ hand a little more as she watches the girl forge a path through the people with surprising ease for a girl of such small stature. Before long they’re in the middle of the dancefloor and Ruby can see peeks of blonde hair through the crowd, curious as to whether or not Weiss was intentionally giving the other girls their space. Weiss turns to face Ruby once again, dropping her hand and causing Ruby to mourn the loss slightly. 

“I imagine you know how to dance, correct?” Weiss questions and Ruby nods emphatically. 

“Something like that, yeah. Just waiting to get a feel for the music, you know?” 

Weiss tilts her head as she listens to the music and realises that the current song was indeed winding down and that it would be slightly difficult to find a rhythm at this very moment. After a few moments, a new song starts and Ruby immediately recognizes the energetic beat, her body beginning to bounce to the rhythm. Weiss registers one of the songs that played fairly frequently on the radio at work and begins to sway slowly, relaxing her body enough to move to the music. Weiss had never been a particularly big fan of the artist, but both the beat of the music and the contagious energy coming from Ruby was enough to get her to enjoy herself a little bit. 

**Oh, I've been shaking**

**I love it when you go crazy**

**You take all my inhibitions**

**Baby, there's nothing holding me back**

**You take me places that tear up my reputation**

**Manipulate my decisions**

**Baby, there's nothing holding me back**

**There's nothing holding me back.**

Conscious of the sporadic limb movements Ruby seems to consider dancing, Weiss moves slightly closer to the other girl falling more and more into the song. Ruby sees this and with a burst of laughter and bravery, she grabs Weiss’ hand again and begins moving her body with it, spinning her every now and then as the song carries into the bridge. 

**'Cause if we lost our minds and we took it way too far**

**I know we'd be alright, I know we would be alright**

**If you were by my side and we stumbled in the dark**

**I know we'd be alright, I know we would be alright**

**'Cause if we lost our minds and we took it way too far**

**I know we'd be alright, I know we would be alright**

**If you were by my side and we stumbled in the dark**

**I know we'd be alright, we would be alright.**

The song fades and changes isn’t something a little breathier and the movements slow down slightly. 

**Say my name and everything just stops**

**I don't want you like a best friend**

**Only bought this dress so you could take it off**

**Take it oh, ha, ha, ha-ah**

**Carve your name into my bedpost**

**’Cause I don't want you like a best friend**

**Only bought this dress so you could take it off**

**Take it oh, ha, ha, ha-ah**

Ruby sends Weiss out into a spin but pulls a little further this time, causing Weiss to fall back into her, arms pressed together as Ruby sways with her from behind. Ruby has no idea where this surge of courage had come from, all she knew was that she wanted to ride it out as long as possible. 

**There is an indentation in the shape of you**

**Only bought this dress so you could take it off**

**You made your mark on me, golden tattoo**

**Only bought this dress so you could take it off.**

Ruby releases Weiss again as the song comes to a close and she can see that the usually stoic girl has a prominent tinge of red across her cheeks, though that could very well have been from the physical exertion of dancing. The next song begins and Ruby holds her hands out to Weiss, who takes them cautiously, and she feels a jolt of excitement fluttering in her stomach. 

**You said, "Let me try you on."**

**So I let you try me on**

**That's the moment that we fell in deep**

**Oh, baby**

**I said, "Just a little bit."**

**Then I got a taste of it**

**Now you got me fallin' at your feet**

Ruby pulls Weiss in closer as the song builds, abandoning Weiss’ hands in favour of placing her own on the other girl’s hips. 

**I can only take you in small doses**

**Small doses**

**Lovin' you, it's explosive**

**You know this**

**I can only take you in small doses**

**Small doses**

**Lovin' you, it's explosive**

**You know this**

**I can only take you in small doses**

Eventually they are flush with one another and as they sway together, Ruby hums along in Weiss’ ear, marvelling over the way the girl shivers at the feeling of Ruby’s breath against her neck. The song comes to an end and Ruby is reluctant to separate from Weiss, but she hears the girl clear her throat. “I think I could use another drink,” 

Ruby pulls away and looks into Weiss’ eyes, searching to see if she’d done the wrong thing, but she seemed to just be mulling something over in her head. 

“Lead the way,” Ruby suggests with a small smile that Weiss returns with a lopsided one of her own before once again beginning the impressive feat of tearing a path through the waves of warm bodies around them. 

Before long, Weiss is ordering two more of the orange cocktails from earlier as well as two odd-looking purple drinks. Ruby raises a brow at the new concoctions and Weiss simply shrugs a shoulder. “Blake’s a fan of black raspberry, what can I say? The girl has strange tastes,” 

“I’ll say, she’s into my sister,” Ruby snickers and if she were to squint, she could have sworn that Weiss cracked a smile at that. 

“Speaking of, shall we go find them?” Weiss asks, having handed Ruby two glasses and picked up the other two, sipping hers as she turns to face the crowd.

It isn’t particularly difficult to find Blake and Yang, given the fact that the latter managed to stick out of the crowd with that golden mane of hers. Lord knows she’d cop a beating if Ruby ever uttered those words to Yang though. As they approach, neither girl notices them, both thoroughly entranced in the other. Weiss initially clears her throat to make her presence known, but when that plan falls through she elects to jabs Blake lightly in the side with her elbow. She immediately holds the drink out as a peace offering when Blake turns to her with a startled look. “Sorry to interrupt, Blake, but if you could accompany me to the restroom that would be greatly appreciated,” 

“What’s the matter, Weiss? Do you need her to hold your hand?” Yang asks and weathers the glare she receives from the girl in question.

“Do you want a free drink or not?” Weiss raises a brow and looks towards Ruby, who plays along and moves further away.

“Hey, hey, cool it. No one needs to do anything drastic,” Yang grins as she reaches out to take the drink that Ruby holds out for her. Weiss rolls her eyes but looks to Blake expectantly as the other girl glances up from her drink.

“Right, yes, restroom,” 

Weiss wastes no time in turning on Blake as soon as they’ve cleared the corner to the bathroom and the cat faunus looks taken aback. “Whoa, what’s up?” 

“It’s Ruby,” Weiss huffs and Blake frowns in confusion, hoping that Weiss is planning on elaborating on that statement. They seemed to be doing just fine up until a few minutes ago but now Weiss seemed to be panicked. 

“What about her?” 

“She’s not being insufferable, well, she is, but not like she usually is. She’s charming, and sweet, and I don’t know how to deal with that. We were dancing earlier, and it was nice. Too nice,” Weiss sips her drink in an attempt to cool her now flaring cheeks and Blake smirks. “Too much for Nice Weiss, huh?” 

“Help me,” Weiss pouts, ignoring the comment and choosing to weather her embarrassment for the moment. 

“Alright, alright. I’m sorry, what’s wrong with that? Are you enjoying yourself?” Blake asks, leaning against the sink and plucking out her straw in favour of taking a gulp directly. 

“Yes, I’m certainly enjoying myself. A little too much if you ask me,” Weiss grumbles and exhales her frustration. 

“I’m struggling to see the problem here,” Blake states and Weiss shuffles on her feet, her drink having been drained from her anxious sips. 

“It’s _Ruby,_ she’s a child. A complete klutz, and don’t get me started on her ability to put her foot in her mouth even in basic conversation,” 

“She’s 22, actually,” Blake replies, recalling a conversation she’d had with Yang about her younger sister and being quite surprised that she was only two years younger than the rest of them.

Weiss’ brow twitches slightly at the new information, but she frowns regardless, “that hardly matters, my point still stands,” 

“You like her. Don’t you? That’s why you’re being all weird about it,” Blake points out more than questions and Weiss looks away. 

“Don’t be absurd,”

Blake stares at the other girl in silence until Weiss is forced to drag her gaze back over to meet Blake’s and admit to the fluttering in her stomach. “Help me,” 

“I’m afraid I’ve done all I can to help you on this one,” Blake pushes off the sink and begins to leave the bathroom.

“But you haven’t even done anything!” Weiss retorts and Blake glances over her shoulder as she saunters away.

“Haven’t I?” 

* * *

“So, is she warming up to you yet? Melting that ice cold exterior?” Yang winks as she continues to throw puns at Ruby.

“Quit it,”

“What’s the matter, little sis? Things too frigid for you?” Yang cops a punch to the arm for that one before Ruby crosses her arms and Yang glances at her with concern.

“Hey, what’s up?” 

“It’s Weiss, she keeps giving me all these mixed signals and I don’t know what to do,” Ruby huffs and Yang looks thoughtful for a moment.

“I guess just take it slow, get to know her. Surely even someone as...reserved as Weiss will see how great you are if she gives it a chance,”

“You think so?” Ruby asks, puzzled over the entire situation. Every time Weiss gave an inch, she seemed to backtrack another mile and Ruby was having trouble making heads or tails of it all.

“Well, yeah. I mean what’s the worst that can happen? She decides she’s not into you? I’m pretty sure by that point you’ll at least have made a new friend,” Yang shrugs and finishes the last of her drink, pleasantly surprised at how easy the purple liquid had gone down. 

“So, what? Just be her friend and see if she wants something more?” Ruby thinks it over in her head and figures it’s as good a plan as any, or at least any plan she has right now. 

“Yeah, exactly. Just be yourself, it’s the best thing to be,”

“When did you start making sense?” Ruby nudges her sister and Yang smirks.

“Hey, someone’s gotta hold the brain cell in the family. It can’t just be Zwei all the time,” 

Before Ruby can retaliate to that dig, she spots Blake poking through the crowd, with a flustered Weiss behind her.

“Good job, you didn’t get lost,” Yang exclaims and Weiss rolls her eyes, prompting Yang to poke her tongue out. 

Any further interaction gets interrupted as a new song starts and both sisters gasp in excitement. “It’s our song,” 

Blake and Weiss watch with concern and Ruby and Yang seem to get into positions of a sort and begin to clap their hands in unison to the beat of the song. 

**Somebody save your soul 'cause you've been sinnin' in this city, I know**

**Too many troubles, all these lovers got you losing control**

**You're like a drug to me, a luxury, my sugar and gold**

**I want the good life, every good night, you're a hard one to hold**

Blake and Weiss are left to stare in a mix of amusement and disbelief as begin to bounce and move around one another, arms waving in sync. Ruby and Yang on the other hand are having a blast, turning towards their companions as the pre-chorus begins, leaning closer to clap to the song. 

**'Cause you don't even know**

**I can make your hands clap**

**Said I can make your hands clap**

Yang and Ruby slow their motions as the song carries into the chorus, their arms moving as though in slow motion, allowing the rhythm of the song to carry their bodies. 

**Every night when the stars come out**

**Am I the only living soul around?**

**Need to believe you could hold me down**

**'Cause I'm in need of somethin' good right now**

**We could be screamin' 'til the sun comes out**

**And when we wake we'd be the only sound**

**I get on my knees and say a prayer: James Brown**

**That I can make your hands clap**

**That I can make your hands clap**

**Turn it up**

**That I can make your hands clap**

It’s at this point that Blake glances at Weiss with a shrug and decides to give in. With a wave of her hand for Weiss to join her, Blake jumps into the fray and begins to rock her body in time as the music speeds up again. Doing her best to keep up with the other two and their strange dance moves. 

**My flesh is searchin' for your worst and best, don't ever deny**

**I'm like a stranger, gimme danger, all your wrong and your right**

**Secrets on Broadway to the freeway, you're a keeper of crimes**

**Fear no conviction, grapes of wrath can only sweeten your wine**

Weiss can feel her conviction slipping and when Ruby walks towards her with hands outstretched, she finds herself taking them and being pulled into the revelry. She pointedly ignores the smirk on Blake’s face and doesn’t even give Yang the opportunity to bother her.

She’d be lying if she said the song wasn’t catchy, and looking around at the smiling faces of her new friends, for lack of a better term, and decides to throw caution to the wind for a moment. 

As the final chorus kicks in, all four girls are bopping and clapping to the music. Many sporadic limbs and a few close calls later, the song comes to an end and Weiss doubles over in laughter at the entire ridiculous display. 

“Come on, Ruby. I need a break,” Weiss manages to exhale and holds her hand out behind her as she walks away. There’s a moment of worry on Weiss’ part that she might be pushing the situation a bit, but she feels an increasingly familiar hand fall into hers and pushes those thoughts away altogether. 

* * *

“Those two are certainly getting along,” Blake comments, slightly out of breath both from the amount of dancing they’d been doing, and from the steady stream of kisses that Yang was peppering her neck with. As soon as her sister was out of view, she returned to the activities that they’d been dabbling in earlier. 

“Ruby’s got a way with people, that’s for sure,” Yang hums against Blake’s neck, more intoxicated by the girl in her arms than by the few drinks in her system. She’d been steadily feeding filthy things into the other girl’s ear all night and the effect was quite obvious. Blake had barely managed to keep herself off of Yang all night, really only succeeding due to the knowledge that they were still in public. With their bestfriend, and sister, not too far away having their own fun. Of course, that fun was far more innocent in nature than the thoughts coursing through Blake’s head. 

“You gotta give her props, she’s even managing to get through that fortress Weiss has got up around her,” Yang comments, pulling her lips away to continue the conversation. 

“I’ll say, Weiss is beside herself with all this attention,” Blake replies, smiling as she remembers the conversation in the bathroom. 

“Yeah, and Ruby just has no idea what’s going on,” Yang scoffs as she breaks contact to look at Blake. 

It’s at that point that an idea seems to spark between the two, a hint of mischief in the air as the thought takes hold. “Should me perhaps help them out a little bit?” Blake asks and Yang nods.

“A little hint here, a forceful nudge there. I’m sure they could figure things out eventually,” 

The two are broken out of their conniving when a song starts overhead and Yang’s eyes widen in surprise. “Oh my God, I haven’t heard this song in years,”

“Neither have I,” Blake agrees and Yang looks towards the dancefloor they’d managed to drift away from.

“Care for another dance, pretty lady?” 

“How could I refuse?” Blake winks as she takes Yang’s hand and heads off for the writhing crowd once more. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard this song actually be played in a club,”

“It is a little strange, I will admit. I’ve always been quite fond of it though,” Blake hums but the mischievous look in her eye gives Yang pause. 

**I like the way you look at me with those beautiful eyes**

**I like the way you act so surprised**

Yang stares for a moment as Blake begins to dance, eyes locked on her as she moves to the music. Yang gives in a moment later and starts to overdramatically sing along to the words. 

**I like the way you sing along**

**I like the way you always get it wrong**

Blake pulls Yang closer, swaying to the music but playing the willing participate in Yang’s performance. Yang’s hands roam over Blake’s body as the song begins to pick up speed.

**I like the way you clap your hands**

**I like the way you love to dance**

**I like the way you put your hands up in the air**

**I like the way you shake your hair**

Blake bites her lip to hide her grin as she feels Yang spin her around and hold tight to her waist, rocking them in time, lips grazing her neck. 

**I like the way you like to touch**

**I like the way you stare so much**

As the beat builds to the chorus Yang releases her hold on Blake, swinging her out by the hand and pulling her back towards her to steal a kiss before Blake grins in anticipation for the cheesy over-sexualised song that they apparently both seemed to have a soft spot for. Blake takes a step backwards, deciding to continue the show they were putting on for one another. 

**But most of all....**

**Yeah..**

**Most of all....**

Blake runs her heads over her neck and into her hair, her body seemingly overtaken by the music and Yang can only watch in awe as the girl in front of her spins, causing her hair to flick and utterly loses herself in the music.

**I like the way you move.....**

**I like the way you move.....**

Yang can’t help herself, she pulls Blake closer to herself again, lips colliding with an energy entirely inappropriate for a public setting. The two lose rhythm with the song but manage to find their own. 

Yang can feel Blake moan against her mouth when she pulls her flush with her body, her hands roaming once again. Yang remembers herself and pulls back, leaning her forehead against Blake’s, very much still sharing one another’s space. “You wanna get out of here?” 

“Yang, if you didn’t ask that in the next 10 seconds I was going to drag you out myself,” 

Yang feels a grin settle on her face at the prospect of having Blake all to herself for the night. 

“I’ll text Ruby, I’m sure those two will be fine on their own,” 

Blake kisses her again before pulling away and humming in agreement, “I’ll make it up to Weiss later,” 

Yang grabs Blake by the hand, her scroll in the other already typing a text out and sending it to Ruby as they navigate their way towards the exit. 

* * *

“Yaanngg,” Ruby whines as she reads the message on her scroll and Weiss looks up from her drink with a frown. 

“I’m certain you’ve not had enough to drink to start confusing the two of us,” 

“No, look,” Ruby holds the scroll out for Weiss to read.

“'_Blake and I are heading out, maybe don’t come home for a while. Love you, bye. _ Really? Oh, Blake is _ so _ going to get it when I see her. It’s barely been two hours and she’s ditching me?” Weiss huffs incredulously and Ruby can’t help but make the joke. 

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she’s _ getting it _just fine on her own. That’s kinda the problem,” 

Weiss scowls but it’s halfhearted and Ruby sighs, “I guess I can just crash at the gym with Dad. I’d rather not be around to hear whatever those two are getting up to,” 

“The gym? Don’t be ridiculous, you can stay with me. If those heathens are going to leave you stranded, the least I can do is offer you a place to stay,” Weiss replies and Ruby stops to stare in surprise at Weiss’ sudden bout of kindness. “Oh stop looking at me like that, it’s not like I asked you to marry me. Besides, contrary to how it may seem, I have enjoyed spending time with you. There’s no point in cutting that short just because we’ve been left behind,” Weiss continues and Ruby snaps out of it, reaching up to rub the back of her neck in an attempt to chase away the warmth she feels on her skin. 

“That’s super nice of you, Weiss. Should we maybe get out of here too then? Clubs aren’t really my thing, and I can only handle so much interaction with strangers,” 

Weiss regards Ruby for a moment and she can see the exact moment that Ruby realises how that statement could come across. “I mean, not for the same reason that Blake and Yang are, obviously.” 

Weiss watches Ruby with great amusement, despite having an utterly stoic expression on her face, truly marvelling at Ruby’s ability to dig herself into a hole. 

“Not that I wouldn’t want to do that, because _duh, of cours_e I would. You’re gorgeous, and I am _ very _ aware of that,” 

Weiss arches a brow at that, leaning down to take a sip of her drink, perfectly content to let Ruby ramble. “Oh God, I’m just gonna stop talking,” Ruby looks anywhere but at Weiss and proceeds to gulp her drink, somehow managing to consume the liquid despite having both feet in her mouth. 

“I’ll arrange for my driver to bring a car around,” Weiss responds, already dialing a number and raising her scroll to her ear, “it’s nice to hear that you think I’m gorgeous though,” 

* * *

“I know the Schnee family is loaded, but this is something else, wow,” Ruby remarks, taking in the sheer size and obvious quality of Weiss’ apartment as they step inside, placing their belongings down on the kitchen counter as Weiss grabs some glasses and pours them two more drinks from her own stock. 

“Yes, well. My parents have a complicated relationship and far too much money. Even when we were still children, whenever they’d fight, we’d get money thrown at us as some sort of quick fix. As if that made things any better. Sometimes it’s cars, art pieces, properties, whatever is convenient enough to mask my father’s guilt,” Weiss sighs and Ruby offers her a small smile. Weiss slides Ruby a glass of what appears to be a different drink from the bar, that she silently accepts.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Weiss. I love my family, I can’t imagine what it must be like to be at odds with them like that,” Ruby glances down at the drink in her hands solemnly, taking in the information Weiss is presenting her with. 

“It is what it is, I suppose. Sometimes good came out of it, this place was given to me after both of my parents were absent for my 21st birthday, and the rights to the store when my sister joined the military the year after that. My father is still mad about that one I think,” Weiss continues as Ruby puts the pieces together.

“Wait, you own the bakery? I thought Blake’s parents owned it?” 

“The Belladonnas own ‘Belladonna’s Baked Goods’, but technically I own the building complex it resides in,” Weiss explains and Ruby nods her head after a moment before another question plagues her.

“Why do you even work there if you own the building?”

“I guess the store has become somewhat of a passion project for me, I want to see it succeed. The Belladonnas are good people, and if I can bring something good from my family name then all the better. Besides, the store is the only place I can find acquaintances that are only slightly insufferable, and far friendlier than the social circles my father encourages,” Weiss takes a healthy gulp of her drink, trying her best to stave off the small smile that graces her lips at the thought of Blake, and Ilia, and god help her, even Sun.

“I’m pretty sure the world won’t end if you call them your friends, Weiss,” Ruby scoffs and Weiss arches a brow in a display of icy composure.

“I for one, am not willing to take that risk,” 

Ruby rolls her eyes with a smile but chooses to continue with her drink instead of disputing, enjoying the slight tingle on her tongue. She made a mental note to ask Weiss about it later. 

“Would you like to take this to the bedroom?” Weiss asks innocently and startles as Ruby chokes on her drink, waving her hand in the air as she tries not to spray the liquid across the extremely expensive-looking marble counter. 

“Oh, relax. I’m not talking about anything untoward,” Weiss rubs her back gently as Ruby manages to clear her throat and draw in oxygen. “These heels are just killing me is all, I wasn’t expecting to have such a physically taxing evening, especially after working all day,” Weiss continues and Ruby leans her head on the forearm she had braced herself against the counter with. She lifts her other hand in a thumbs up and Weiss nods to herself before setting off down the hall. 

Ruby glances after her and sighs to herself before following after the girl that seemed to be on a mission, her mind desperately trying to think about anything other than the fact that Weiss Schnee had just invited her into her bedroom. 

Upon entering the room, Ruby takes in the fact that this does seem like a very Weiss room. The colour scheme is all greys and whites, a dresser with a large mirror, curtains covering what is no doubt the door to a private balcony on one side and another door that she imagines in an ensuite bathroom. The king bed situated in the centre of the room against the back wall is the only trace of colour, and definitely the centrepiece of the room. To Ruby’s surprise, the quilt cover and pillows feature a heavy red with blue accents and even some traces of black.

She takes note of what appears to be a small stuffed knight, complete with a suit of armour and tiny sword. Ruby pauses at the door to take her boots off and leave them lined up neatly by the door. 

Ruby takes a seat on the bed and cautiously reaches out to pick up the plush toy, she glances up to where Weiss is tossing her heels into her closet. She can see the challenge in Weiss’ eyes to ask about it but she elects to remain silent, very much in favour of surviving to live another day. 

“I wasn’t really expecting a guest this evening, and while I do have a guest room, Blake has essentially claimed it as her own. It’s more or less the halfway point between work and her place, but if you give me a minute I can make it presentable for you,” Weiss calls out from where she’s currently shedding her dress in the walk-in closet, and Ruby is clutching the little knight as she stares in the opposite direction. 

The last thing Ruby needs is to see any more of the flawless pale skin she’d already witnessed, at least while she was still sure that Weiss’ intentions were strictly platonic.

“Oh, that’s okay. I can just sleep on the couch or something, I don’t want to be a bother,” Ruby responds and she can already tell the expression that Weiss is sporting based on the small scoff she hears. 

“Please, that thing is terrible to sleep on. If you really don’t want to be a bother, you can just sleep with me,” Weiss emerges just as Ruby short circuits both at her words, and at the silk nightgown, she was now wearing. 

“There’s plenty of space,” Weiss reasons and Ruby nods emphatically, swapping the knight in her hands for a large t-shirt and some sleep shorts.

“Yup, space. Sure is what I want,” Ruby responds unconvincingly, and Weiss almost feels her composure slip, but she shakes it off as she gently places her knight back in his spot. 

“Oh, the bathroom’s just over-,” Weiss begins but stops short when she turns to see Ruby faced away from her, slipping her button-up over her shoulders and revealing both toned muscles and something even more surprising that snaps Weiss out of her sudden gay spiral, and then promptly throws her deeper into it. “You have a tattoo,” 

This spurs Ruby to turn around, jeans unbuttoned and now free of her shirt, clad only in a black lace bra that leads Weiss to wonder just how platonic she herself wanted this evening to remain. “Oh, yeah. I’ve got a few actually, you didn’t notice?”

Weiss briefly thinks back to their encounters but fails to think of a moment she might have seen them, but then notices now that Ruby has turned that the tattoos on her forearms would have very much been visible tonight if only she’d had the presence of mind to notice. 

“I guess I’ve just never seen them, but in my defense, you’re usually in that hoodie of yours, or in uniform,” Weiss retorts, her mind wandering slightly at the thought of Ruby in uniform again. 

“Yeah, that’s fair. I can show them to you now if you’d like?” Ruby offers and Weiss simply nods as Ruby crosses her legs beneath her and settles closer to where Weiss had taken a seat on her side of the bed. 

“This one’s for my uncle, he travels a lot but he always tries to spend as much time with us as he can when he’s in town,” Ruby begins, holding out her right arm and displaying a large black crow spread across her forearm, “you’ll probably understand that one a little better if you meet him,” 

“This one’s for my mom,” Ruby continues softly, switching over to her left forearm this time and running her fingers over a few rose petals that start out red but transition softly into white, “we both have this weird thing for roses, and also our last name, so,”

“This one’s for Yang,” Ruby slides her attention up to where a large yellow dragon rests on her shoulder and outer bicep, “my dad always calls her his ‘sunny little dragon’. He was a little unhappy when I first got tattooed, but he’s got one too so I won that battle pretty easily,” 

Weiss takes in how much joy is exuded from Ruby as she explains each piece and can’t help the soft smile that forms on her face as she hums along in understanding. 

“Dad always tells me that this used to be my mom’s favourite saying. It was my first tattoo actually,” Ruby runs her fingers lightly across the skin near her left collarbone and Weiss gazes at the script that delicately reads, ‘keep moving forward’. 

“And then there’s the one you already saw,” Ruby moves onto her knees and turns to face away from Weiss again, settling back down so that Weiss can see the watercolour sunset and cliff’s edge spread across her back and shoulder blades. Weiss can’t help but reach out to run her fingers against the blues and pinks and oranges that colour Ruby’s skin. She can feel Ruby shiver slightly beneath her touch. 

“What does this one mean?” Weiss asks, surprising herself with the softness of her voice. 

“There’s a cliff back on Patch, it’s where my mom is buried,” Ruby replies quietly and Weiss frowns. She knew that she’d never really heard much from either Ruby or Yang about their mother but she also had no idea she was no longer with them. 

“You must think of me as such a fool,” Weiss starts and Ruby turns back to face her in confusion, “you just listened to my whole spiel about how my parents don’t love me and here you are dealing with the loss of a mother. I must look like a whiny child, I’m so sorry, Ruby,” 

“Hey, you stop that. It doesn’t work that way, what I’ve experienced doesn’t make your experiences any less relevant. I’ve had time to come to terms with it, you’re still going through it. I had Yang to lean on, hell, she practically raised me. From the sounds of it you didn’t really have anyone for a while,” Ruby reaches out to where Weiss is balling her hands into her fist and takes them in her own. 

Weiss can feel the telltale signs of her throat tightening and her eyes beginning to burn but she refuses to let her father be the cause of more of her tears. She’d already given him enough. Instead she focuses on the girl in front of her and the open kindness spread across her face rather than the cold disappointment of her father whenever he deemed her unworthy. 

Weiss takes a deep breath and gathers herself again as Ruby looks at her with concern on her face. 

“You okay?” Ruby asks gently and Weiss nods her head. 

“I’m okay, it’s just not something I dredge up if I can help it. I’ve had my time to come to terms with it as well, but every now and then, I can still feel the grip he’s got on me. Everything I do, there’s always some trace of him, some sense of impending failure that he’s instilled in me,” 

“Not everything,” Ruby replies and Weiss pauses for a moment considering the fact that perhaps there are parts of her life that he hasn’t tainted. Her work, her friends, Ruby. 

“No, not everything,” Weiss agrees and she watches as an idea sparks in Ruby’s eyes. 

“This is gonna sound totally lame, but do you maybe wanna cuddle for a while? It’s what Yang always does when I’m upset,” 

“I think I might like that very much,” Weiss breathes, watching Ruby’s face light up once more, and she thinks to herself briefly that maybe Yang wasn’t quite as obnoxious as she seems. 

“Okay, so Yang’s usually the big spoon, but you’re the one that’s upset, so I guess I’ll be the big spoon. Is that okay?” Ruby rambles, shedding her jeans but deciding against wearing the pajamas, taking note of how thick the blanket was before climbing under the covers and holding them out for Weiss as well. 

“I’m sure that will suffice,” Weiss replies, picking up her knight and carefully climbing under the covers with her back to Ruby. 

“Does he have a name?” Ruby asks as she slides her arm over Weiss’ waist and pulls her snugly against herself. “No,” _yes,_ “that would be childish,” Weiss sputters and Ruby waits a moment before Weiss sighs, “his name is Ritter.” 

“Strange name but alright,” Ruby mumbles against Weiss’ neck, content to let it go. 

“It’s german for ‘knight’, my mother gave him to me when I was a child. Back when she still acted like a mother at least,” 

“Oh, well then. Goodnight, Weiss, goodnight, Ritter,” 

“Goodnight, Ruby,” Weiss replies, finally feeling her fatigue from the long day beginning to hit her, and hit her hard. 

“Oh shoot, we forgot to turn the light off,” Ruby groans and begins to untangle herself. Before she can even remove her arm from around her waist, Weiss catches her wrist to keep her in place. Ruby furrows her brow in confusion but as soon as Weiss is sure that Ruby is staying put, she holds her hands out and claps them together to switch the lights off. 

“That’s so cool,” Ruby marvels and Weiss hums.

“In my line of work, when I make it to bed I plan to stay in bed for a while. I usually don’t have the energy for things as trivial as a light switch,” 

“You don’t like to use too much energy in bed, huh? Weiss pillow princess confirmed, Yang’ll love this,” Ruby prods and Weiss scrowls in the dark. 

“Ruby Rose, if you wish to stay in my apartment tonight you will not utter my name and the words ‘pillow princess’ in the same sentence again. If you ever hope to enter my apartment in the future, you won’t breathe a word of it to your degenerate of a sister,” 

“Yes, ma’am,” Ruby states and Weiss hums in satisfaction.

“Excellent,” 

Weiss settles further into Ruby’s arms and pushes the connotations of that topic out of her mind, especially after feeling how much exposed skin was pressing against her. After a moment she realises that the heat she’s feeling has less to do with that line of thought, and more to do with the fact that Ruby herself is exuding heat. “How are you possibly this warm?”

“I think it runs in the family actually, we’re all space heaters. Believe it or not, Yang’s even worse than I am,” Ruby replies with a chuckle before trying to free herself again to give Weiss a break from her body heat. “I can move a little further away if it makes you more comfortable,” 

“Don’t you dare,” Weiss grumbles, her voice already sleepy and holds tight to Ruby’s arm again, “I get cold easily,” 

“Hehe, ice queen,” Ruby grins and waits for whatever rebuttal she’s come to expect from Weiss but is taken by surprise when the girl rolls over and rubs her face slightly against her chest, settling her head beneath Ruby’s chin.

“Shut up,” 

Ruby can tell from the mumble that Weiss is barely holding onto her consciousness, and with a content sigh she lets sleep begin to take her as well. 

When she wakes again, Ruby feels the most well-rested she has in a long time, and she’s left to wonder if that has to do more with the obscenely high thread count, or the company, but she’s content not to dwell on it currently. 

Ruby can see a few rays of sunlight peeking through the curtain and painting the ceiling a fairly decent indication that it’s probably only mid-morning. She looks away from them to glance down at where Weiss is still curled up and sleeping soundly in her arms, Ritter tucked safely between the two of them. 

Her attention is drawn to her scroll vibrating on the bedside table and she carefully reaches up with her free hand to grab it and sees a few texts from Yang.

_ Hey, Sis. Sorry to bail on you so early. _

_ But my God, I regret nothing. _

_ I’ll make it up to you later. _

_ Seriously, no regrets. _

Ruby rolls her eyes and breathes out a laugh, counting her lucky stars for her ambidextrous nature, so that she wouldn’t have to worry about waking Weiss in the process of messaging back.

_ Ew, Yang. TMI. _

The reply comes quickly and it’s no wonder why. 

_ ;P _

_ How was your night? Did you dazzle the ice queen with your awkwardness? _

Ruby frowns at the scroll, looking down to double-check that Weiss was still out to the world and reaching up to snap a selfie of the two of them. She sends it and braces for the response. 

_ Holy shit _

_ No fucking way _

_ Little sis has got game _

_ Even Blake is surprised _

_ Is that a stuffed toy? _

Yang sends a photo of herself and Blake cuddled up beneath her sheets, Blake with her head tucked against Yang’s face. Yang poking her tongue between her teeth and making a face at the camera. There are a few blatantly obvious hickies colouring the two girls and she has no doubt that they did in fact have an excellent evening.

Ruby pauses for a second to make sure that Yang is done for the moment before sending back her response. 

_ Not a word. Nothing happened. _

_ And if Weiss finds out I told you anything you’ll never find my body. _

_ Then you’ll have no one to send morning after photos to. _

_ Or play video games with. _

_ Now we both don’t want that and I don’t want to die like this. _

_ So shut it. _

_ And yes. His name is Ritter and I would die for him. _

Once she’s sure that Yang gets the idea, Ruby pauses to wait for a response.

_ I’ve been informed by Blake that if Weiss kills you _

_ She’ll never sleep with me again _

_ And I can’t have that I’m afraid. _

_ So your secret is safe with me. Maybe. _

_ Definitely. _

_ We’ll see. _

As she reads the last of Yang’s long-winded response Ruby sighs in relief, and a moment later feels Weiss begin to stir. In a panic, Ruby squeaks and tosses her scroll to the floor, grateful that the room was carpeted. 

“What are you doing? Did you just throw your scroll?” Weiss asks, her voice heavy with sleep and confusion. 

“Nothing, Yang was being gross, you don’t wanna see it,” Ruby replies and Weiss nods her head before laying down again, apparently still in the sleepy grace period of the morning. 

“How are you even warmer than before?” 

“It’s one of the great mysteries of the universe,” Ruby grins and Weiss hums. “How do you survive in that hoodie of yours?” 

“I don’t know, I’m used to it I guess. To be honest it’s more of a comfort thing than anything, the material’s pretty light. My mom used to have one just like it,” Ruby ponders and tucks her hand underneath her head. 

“Not to be that person, but did you wanna grab some breakfast? I make some pretty great pancakes, and I’m still not 100% sure that it’s safe to go home yet,”

Weiss is silent for a moment as she assesses the offer, “Ruby Rose, if you keep talking like that I’ll never let you leave,” 


End file.
